Georgetown Law Journal
November, 2003
Westlaw ©2003 cite as 92 GEO L.J. 129 reprinted with permission of the author

Note

*129 WHO DECIDES? GENITAL-NORMALIZING SURGERY ON INTERSEXED INFANTS
Alyssa Connell Lareau [FNa1]

page 18

[FN82]. For a discussion of the physical risks involved, see supra note 30 and accompanying text.

[FN83]. See Jennifer Rosato, Using Bioethics Discourse To Determine When Parents Should Make Health Care Decisions for Their Children: Is Deference Justified?, 73 TEMP. L. REV. 1, 39 (2000); cf. id. at 47 nn.283-84 (citing In re Guardianship of Mason, 669 N.E.2d 1081, 1085 (Mass. App. Ct. 1996) (refusing to appoint guardian due to guardian's hostility and distrust); Windishar v. Windishar, 731 P.2d 445, 446-47 (Or. Ct. App. 1986) (removing guardian in part because of "emotional remoteness," which detrimentally affected ability to protect ward's interests)).

[FN84]. Id. at 43.

[FN85]. See id.

[FN86]. But see id. at 47. This characterization of emotional conflicts differs from Rosato's because she sees most emotional conflicts as "situational" and fact-based, requiring an inquiry into the relationship between the decisionmaker and the patient, and the decisionmaker's specific understanding and reaction to the prognosis. Id. However, because I believe an emotional conflict is inherent in every case where parents are informed that their child is intersexed and genital-normalizing surgery is proposed as treatment, I characterize it as a categorical rather than a situational conflict.

[FN87]. See id.

[FN88]. See id. at 47 & n.285 (citing In re Guardianship of Vesa, 892 S.W.2d 491, 491 (Ark. 1995) (removing guardian due to hostilities); In re Estate of Johnson, 579 N.E.2d 1206, 1209 (Ill. App. Ct. 1991) (removing guardian due to evidence of feud)).

[FN89]. See id. at 47.

[FN90]. Dreger, supra note 53, at F4.

[FN91]. Dreger, supra note 30.

[FN92]. Id.

[FN93]. When parents were asked what they would choose for their children, "many said they would opt to turn micropenis boys into girls and would opt for cosmetic surgeries on girls' large clitorises." Id.

[FN94]. See Rosato, supra note 83, at 57-58.

[FN95]. See id. at 57 n.345 (citing Hart v. Brown, 289 A.2d 386, 387 (Conn. Super. Ct. 1972) (involving kidney transplant); Curran v. Bosze, 566 N.E.2d 1319, 1321 (Ill. 1990) (bone-marrow transplant); Strunk v. Strunk, 445

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